


Tales of Lin Bei Fong

by talibusorabat (hermitcave)



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Families of Choice, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-04-18
Updated: 2012-07-07
Packaged: 2017-11-03 21:06:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/385939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hermitcave/pseuds/talibusorabat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of stories on Lin Bei Fong's childhood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_Dear Uncle Iroh,_

_We miss you here in Republic City. Bumi keeps stealing plants from my garden to try and make a new blend of tea, and Kya cast little Tenzin in the role of Prince Zuko in her reenactment of your adventures. You’ll be surprised to learn that you were the one obsessed with capturing Aang; since Tenzin refuses to read his lines right, it’s up to Kya to chase my husband around, screaming “I MUST CAPTURE THE AVATAR!”_

_I hope you visit again soon. We worry about you living alone so far away. I know Zuko would feel better if you lived closer._

Iroh set down Katara’s letter. He had carried it in his pocket for the past few days like a talisman. He could hear the laughter of children in the crinkle of its pages, and feel the warmth of family in every word, and he wondered not for the first time if he should reconsider her offer. Republic City had an appalling lack of decent tea shops.

But it wasn’t the Jasmine Dragon that kept him in Ba Sing Se, long after Zuko had moved into the Royal Palace, Sokka to the South Pole, and Katara & Aang to the newly formed Republic City. Toph, who refused to stay in one place for too long, was especially confused by his decision to remain in “the lamest city in the whole world, and I’ve seen all of them.” He was glad they didn’t. He loved Ba Sing Se for reasons he would not wish on anyone else.

Still, he wished it was not so far. He loved having children around, but Aang and his flying bison were the only ones with the means to reach the great city quickly, and he was too busy building Republic City to visit a lonely old man as much as he would like. For Zuko and Sokka, the journey would take weeks. Toph could either be minutes or months away; she never wrote, so it was impossible to say. Her delightful visits were always a surprise.

Outside the front door, a baby began screaming - not a helpless cry of desperation, but an order that was to be obeyed. The door kicked open, and Toph stood at the threshhold, holding the squalling infant as far from her as possible.

“ **A LITTLE HELP, PLEASE.** ”

 

“I found it outside one of the temples,” Toph explained. Iroh cradled the little baby in his arms, carefully feeding her milk from a teapot-turned-baby-bottle. The young earthbender nursed a cup of tea in her hands - she had yet to take a sip.

“Who _does_ that?” she continued. “I mean, you can at least hand it off to a monk or something! You don’t just LEAVE it there!”

Satisfied, the baby pushed the teapot away, and Iroh lifted her to his shoulder, gently patting her back to help her burp. “Sometimes people are ashamed,” he said. “They don’t want anyone to know the child was theirs.”

“That’s stupid,” Toph snapped.

Iroh smiled. “That’s true,” he said. The baby burped agreement.

Toph sighed, and finally took a sip of her tea, only to find it cold. Without prompting, Iroh reheated it. “So what do we do with it?” she asked.

“What do we do with it?” Iroh repeated. “Take care of her, of course!” The words were out of his mouth before he could think.

“What? No way!” Toph protested. “Katara’s the Sugarmomma! I don’t do kids. Isn’t there, like, an orphanage or something? A zoo?”

“An orphanage is no place for a child,” Iroh said.

“They’re designed for kids.” Toph wasn’t buying it.

Iroh looked down at the infant, who had fallen asleep. He remembered holding Lu Ten when he was this small; sometimes he could even feel the ghost of his warmth in his arms. The little girl’s weight was achingly familiar. “Children need families,” he said.

Toph was silent for a moment. Though she couldn't see his face, Iroh felt sure she saw right through him.

“How are you going to handle a baby?” she asked.

“I’ve done this before,” Iroh reminded her.

Toph sighed. “Iroh, you’re old,” she said, as though this fact had somehow escaped him.

When in doubt, pull out a proverb. “Age is not a number,” he told her. “It is a state of mind.”

Toph was not impressed. “Seriously,” she said. “You live alone. Sugar Queen is hundreds of miles away. Yeah, she’s got Appa, but how will you get a message to her if something goes wrong?”

Iroh carefully shifted the baby to give his arms a rest. “Why did you pick her up?” he asked. “What were you planning on doing?”

“I figured I’d figure something out,” Toph said.

Iroh smiled. “Exactly.”

Toph scowled. “You’re even more muleheaded than Firelord Sparky.”

“I taught him everything he knows,” Iroh said proudly.

“I wouldn’t brag too loud about that,” Toph said. She growled and finished off her tea. “I’ll stick around for a weeks,” she told him. “Until we figure this out.”

“Your room is just as you left it,” Iroh told her, and Toph grinned.

“This is why you’re my favorite,” she said. “Katara never remembers to not clean.”

 

Two weeks passed. Iroh named the baby Lin; Toph just called her “the poopbender.” 

“Babies are boring,” she told Iroh. “I don’t see what the big deal is.” Iroh just laughed and promised things would get plenty exciting when she learned to crawl. “Woop de doo,” she said. “I can picture the chase scene now.”

They didn’t talk about when Toph would leave. Iroh knew that she was right, and he couldn’t take care of a child all on his own, but he couldn’t pressure Toph to take on a responsibility she didn’t want. Nor could he bear the idea of giving little Lin up.

She was not a very charming baby; she was rather dour, and seemed perpetually unimpressed with the world. She kept to a strict feeding schedule, and any deviation from it was sure to cause a fuss.

During one such tantrum, she hurled a clay mug across the room without touching it.

They stood, shocked. 

“Did the poopbender just earthbend?” Toph asked.

“…I think so.” Bending abilities normally didn’t manifest until children were at least toddlers.

Slowly, Toph grinned.

“Okay,” she said. “Now I’m interested.”


	2. Tale of the Toddler

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iroh is worried that Lin hasn't yet learned to walk.

Toph walked into kitchen and nearly walked right out again. Iroh sat at the kitchen table, the earth trembling with his fatherly concern. She hated it when he got all parental.

"I'm worried about Lin," he said. Now Toph had to sit down to defend her daughter's right to get into trouble.

"What kind of worried are we talking about here?" she asked. "Baby girl won't stop getting into trouble worried, or general parent fussiness? Either way, I'll tell you right now you're overreacting."

"She isn't walking yet."

"So what?"

"So what?" Iroh practically spilled his tea, which made Toph grin. She never got to shock him like that. "She's three years old!"

Toph kicked her feet up on the table and leaned back. "Like I said, so what? I didn't start walking until I was 5."

"Weren't you raised by badgermoles?" Iroh asked.

"Yeah, but it had nothing to do with that," Toph said. "I mean, sorta. It's something all earthbender kids have to go through." She settled her feet on the ground as she tried to figure out the best way to explain this.

"Earth isn't like fire or air or even water. It's not something that's inside you. You have to touch it to feel connected to it. Crawling connects us in a way that walking can't. Earthbender kids don't just need to learn how to walk; they need to learn why to walk. What could be worth weakening that connection."

Iroh nodded. "I had not realized that." He took a long, slow sip of his tea as he thought. "How long do you think it will take?"

Toph shrugged. "She'll walk when she's ready."

\-------

The next morning, Iroh dove out of bed and straight across the room to catch his favorite teapot as the earth shook.

"ON YOUR FEET, POOPBENDER!"

Iroh cautiously crawled to the window and peered out. Toph was out in the courtyard with Lin, bending columns of earth to keep the baby from getting to her knees.

"Quit your crying!" the young woman shouted at the squalling child. "If you want your breakfast, you gotta WALK for it!" Another column pushed Lin towards a bowl of steaming porridge. The baby tried to bend the bowl towards her, but Toph quickly counteracted everything she tried.

Iroh pulled a chair to the window and watched the two of them. Lin never stopped loudly protesting her treatment, but step by step, Toph had to use fewer columns to keep the child upright.

And for the last few feet to the bowl, Lin walked all on her own.

"Good job, kid," Toph said, genuinely proud. Lin giggled happily at the praise --

\-- Just as she used earthbending to hurl to bowl at her mother's face.

SPLAT! The little girl fell back to her knees, laughing hysterically.

"Like you said, Toph," Iroh called out before the young woman could exact her revenge. "She'll walk when she's ready."

A self-satisfied Lin crawled back into the house for a proper breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Neglected but not forgotten! Feel free to leave prompts if there's anything you'd like to see; this story started out as a prompt and I've found it's hard to continue without them.


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